California Department of Parks and Recreation executives made "conscious and deliberate" decisions to hide $20 million in an agency account because they feared that revealing the funds to state finance officials would cause embarrassment and further budget cuts, an investigation by the state attorney general's office concluded.

The report, released Friday, describes the findings of the investigation that began last year after revelations that state parks officials had stashed $54 million in parks accounts, even as the department was threatening to close parks because of funding shortfalls. Parks officials kept the money secret by failing to report it to budget officials in Gov. Jerry Brown's administration and with past administrations.

Much of that $54 million - $34 million was found in the Off-Highway Vehicle Fund - went unreported because of poor accounting procedures in that fund, and there was no evidence that this money was intentionally hidden, according to Thomas Patton, the deputy attorney general who conducted the investigation.

However, the remainder, $20 million in the State Parks and Recreation Fund, was intentionally hidden, according to the investigation that relied on interviews with 40 current and former parks employees and other documentation.

Many managers in the department knew about the hidden money, talked about it and concealed it from state finance officials for at least a decade, according to the investigation. But reports that former department Director Ruth Coleman, who resigned amid the scandal, knew of the money were found to be unreliable. She was the only witness who refused to speak to investigators, according to the report.

The investigation, which was an administrative and not a criminal probe, found no evidence that the money was ever spent. The investigator concluded that the hidden funds were "essentially useless" to the parks department because they could not be spent without legislative approval.

No criminal charges were filed by the attorney general's office, but officials at the Natural Resources Agency, which oversees the parks department, said they would examine thousands of pages of documents created by the inquiry and pass on any potential evidence of a crime to local law enforcement.

'Individual action'

John Laird, secretary of the agency, praised the report and said it made clear the importance of "individual action" of reporting a problem such as this when a person sees it.

"It is now clear that this is a problem that could have been fixed by a simple correction years ago, instead of being unaddressed for so long that it turned into a significant blow to public trust in government," Laird said in a statement.

He added that new accounting systems, and new department employees, are in place "to make sure this never happens again." In all, three high-ranking officials were fired and two resigned.

Others who knew about the money or took part in keeping it secret had retired from the department many years ago.

The discovery of the money came as the department was moving to close parks indefinitely because of the state's budget deficit. Seventy parks were originally slated for closure, and parks advocates worked doggedly to raise private money or find other ways to keep them open.

Ultimately, no parks fully closed, though some still have reduced hours or certain amenities such as campsites are not in use. The scandal also led to legislation creating a two-year moratorium on park closures.

As for the report, he said, "What it does reinforce for us, at first blush, is the strong conviction that there needs to be better oversight of the State Parks and Recreation Fund money and much more transparency overall about (the department's) budget moving forward."

The fund collects money from park entrance fees, campsite rentals and concession sales, which is supposed to be spent on the general operation of state parks.

Questions remain

State Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, has been one of the most vocal critics of the parks department and of closures, 20 of which would have closed in her district along the North Coast.

She said she still has questions about the money, particularly why it was hidden, and said she wants to see the Brown administration conduct an internal investigation for answers to that.

"I still have a high degree of skepticism," Evans said. "It's obvious this is a state agency that has been hiding its assets. What's less clear is why."

The investigation follows other inquiries of the hidden money by the state controller and the Department of Finance. The state auditor also is preparing a report on the matter.